Questions and statements: At 14:30, Defence Ministers will face questions from MPs. Nine of the 23 questions on the Order Paper are identical to at least one other, which is often a sign, as we’ve noted in previous Bulletins, that the questions have been co-ordinated by the Whips or the Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary. Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Private Members’ Bills: The Leader of the House will ask MPs to approve a motion setting out the Session’s 13 sitting Fridays between November 2024 and July 2025, on which Private Members’ Bills will be debated. It needs to be agreed in time for Wednesday, when the 20 MPs selected in the Private Members’ Bill ballot will choose the Friday on which they want their bill to be debated. Kim Leadbeater, who was first in the ballot, is expected to choose the first available date – 29 November – for a debate on her assisted dying bill. (But, as we explain below in Wednesday’s entry in this Bulletin, that date is not guaranteed.) The motion is debatable for one hour, and amendments have been tabled in the past to amend Friday sitting dates, but it is not expected that any will be tabled this time. Speaker’s Conference: The House will also be asked to approve a motion to establish a Speaker’s Conference to consider “the factors influencing threat levels against candidates and MPs, assess the effectiveness of responses to such threats, and make recommendations for ensuring free and fair elections, as well as the proper protection of candidates during UK-wide parliamentary elections and of elected representatives thereafter”. Further information about this and previous Speaker’s Conferences can be found in our recent briefing on things to look out for this Session.

Main business: The main business will be the Second Reading of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, commonly known as “Martyn’s Law” in memory of Martyn Hett, a victim of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. The Bill seeks to enhance security and preparedness by requiring certain premises to take steps to reduce the risk of harm from and vulnerability to terrorist attacks. The previous Government published a draft version of the Bill in the last Parliament, which underwent pre-legislative scrutiny by the Home Affairs Select Committee. Although the Government pledged to introduce the Bill in the 2023 King’s Speech, the earlier than anticipated election prevented it from being formally presented. The new Government renewed this commitment in the recent King’s Speech and the Bill was introduced in September. The draft legislation has seen some revisions, including an increase in the venue capacity threshold for the new security requirements, rising from 100 to 200 people. Statutory Instruments: A motion on the Order Paper proposes the appointment of members of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI). This Committee, made up of members from both Houses, is responsible for examining Statutory Instruments (SIs) made by the Government. Its role is to highlight legal and procedural issues such as defective drafting or an SI exceeding the powers granted by Parliament. It does not assess the policy merit of SIs. The JCSI was chaired by a Labour MP from 2015 to 2024, but there is no formal requirement for the chair to come from the Opposition benches. If the Government chooses to follow this recent precedent, the leading candidate among the seven MPs being appointed would appear to be Sir Bernard Jenkin. He is an experienced MP who previously chaired both the Liaison Committee and Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), though he recently lost his bid to chair PACAC again.

**Need to keep up with legislative changes? Our Statutory Instrument Tracker® provides quick and efficient access to the latest updates. It covers consultations on Statutory Instruments (SIs) and tracks every stage of the parliamentary process in both Houses. With the SI Tracker®, you can customise alerts and updates based on your specific policy interests and compliance requirements. Save time and reduce risk by using our intuitive online app to stay ahead of the latest legislative developments.**

Adjournment: The Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, Josh MacAlister, has the adjournment debate on the nuclear industry in Cumbria. House of Lords: Two new Peers will be introduced to the House today:

• Eleanor Laing (now Baroness Laing of Elderslie), the former senior Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons; and

• Dr Hilary Cass (now Baroness Cass), a paediatrician who chaired the

  Cass Review of gender identity services for children and young people.

Oral questions will follow, including a notable one from Lord Campbell-Savours, a former MP (and father of the new Labour MP for Penrith and Solway, Markus Campbell-Savours) who will ask the Leader of the House of Lords about plans to promote awareness among members of the House about the rules and conventions relating to behaviour and courtesy in the Chamber. Perhaps a nudge to the new and younger Peers who may be less familiar with the procedures and practices in the House. Lord Hain, a Cabinet Minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and a former junior minister for the Middle East, has an oral question on negotiations to resolve the Gaza crisis. In January, he suggested the West was “colluding in a terrible failure” in Gaza and called for Britain to rethink its approach. The main business of the day will be the Committee Stage of the Crown Estate Bill, which seeks to widen the borrowing and investment powers of the Crown Estate, with a view to encouraging the faster development of wind power projects on Crown land. There will also be a short debate on external auditing deficiencies highlighted by the collapse of companies such as BHS, Carillion, Patisserie Valerie, and London Capital and Finance. In Grand Committee, Peers will discuss the Immigration (Guidance on Detention of Vulnerable Persons) Regulations 2024. The Regulations, laid by the previous Government on 30 April, introduce changes to the statutory guidance on Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention. Key revisions include:

• removing the commitment to reduce the number of vulnerable people in detention, aligning with the Government’s shift towards expanding detention in response to rising illegal migration; and

• establishing a lawful basis for the ‘second opinion policy’, which allows the Home Office to obtain a second medical opinion on a migrant’s vulnerability, following a court ruling earlier this year that the policy was unlawful.

The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Committee has drawn special attention to these regulations, noting that the Government has “not set out how it will monitor and report on the policy and the House may wish to press for further details”.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Ministers from the Department for Health and Social Care will face questions from MPs. Six of the 24 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates of at least one other question, three concern the adequacy of access to NHS mental health services, and three are about access to primary care services. Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Main business: MPs will debate the principles of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill at Second Reading. The Bill proposes to remove the right of the 90 remaining hereditary peers to sit in the Upper House. The Conservatives have not yet clarified whether they intend to oppose the Bill. Forty-five of the hereditary peers are Conservatives, but only four are Labour, so the Bill would go some way to reducing the imbalance between the parties in the House of Lords. In any event the real battle over the Bill is likely to come when the Bill reaches the Lords itself. Statutory Instruments: Three Statutory Instruments will be debated in Delegated Legislation Committees today, the most notable being the Armed Forces Act 2006 (Continuation) Order 2024. This annual order is required to renew the legislative foundation for the UK’s armed forces. The requirement for annual renewal dates back to the 1688 Bill of Rights, which said that:

“raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdome in time of Peace unlesse it be with Consent of Parlyament is against law”.

The debate on the renewal of the armed forces may last up to 90 minutes, but there are rarely strong opponents to the Order. Another SI being debated – the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2024 – would classify several novel drugs as class A and class B prohibited drugs. Adjournment: The Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse has the adjournment debate on spice-spiked vapes. Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates today:

• 9:30-11:00: Scotland’s economy (John Grady, Labour)

• 11:00-11:30: Role of the Northern Ireland Veterans Commissioner (Robin Swann, UUP)

• 14:30-16:00: Community benefits from renewable energy projects (Angus MacDonald, Liberal Democrat)

• 16:00-16:30: Estate adoption in the North East (Emma Foody, Labour & Co-op)

• 16:30-17:30: Business confidence (Mims Davies, Conservative)

House of Lords: The first debate after oral questions will be on a report from the House of Lords Committee on Procedure and Privileges. The report concerns the procedure for handling bills which implement Law Commission recommendations. These bills are referred to a ‘special public bill committee’ for their Committee Stage, unlike most bills in the Lords which are usually considered in Grand Committee or Committee of the Whole House. These committees are able to take evidence, but are currently limited in doing so to a 28-day period from the time they are appointed. The report recommends increasing that timeframe to 40 days, allowing more time to issue calls for evidence and gather public input. Following this, the main debate will address the response to the Infected Blood Inquiry. Two Government Ministers – Stephanie Peacock MP from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Baroness Jones of Whitchurch from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – are scheduled to give evidence to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee as part of their inquiry into ‘The future of news: impartiality, trust and technology’. Meanwhile in Grand Committee, debates will take place on Statutory Instruments related to sanctions on Russia and Syria, and social security in Scotland.

Private Members’ Bills: The 20 MPs selected in the ballot – the winners of Parliament’s ‘legislative lottery’ – will queue up today to present their bills to the House for First Reading. Each MP will present their bill in the order in which they were drawn in the ballot. To do so they need only a short title (the name) and a long title (a description of the bill’s purpose). After presenting their bill, they will be asked to choose a date for its Second Reading from among the first seven of the 13 Fridays set aside for Private Members’ Bills, as determined in Monday’s motion. Typically, the top seven MPs in the ballot choose the first slot on the first seven Fridays. While the bill does not need to be published at First Reading (presentation to the House) it must be published before its Second Reading.

Much of the attention will be focused on Kim Leadbeater, who topped the ballot and is expected to introduce a bill on ‘assisted dying’. It is expected that she will choose Friday 29 November for the Second reading, the first available date, when the bill will face its crucial first vote. While Leadbeater could opt for a later date, delaying the Second Reading risks stalling the bill, especially given that only one Private Member’s Bill can go into a Public Bill Committee at a time, and given that time for the remaining scrutiny stages may be limited to the final six PMB Friday sitting dates. The MP who came third in the ballot – the Liberal Democrat MP and former long-distance ocean rower Dr Roz Savage – has given notice that she intends to introduce a ‘Climate and Nature Bill’, which would legally require the UK to implement policies to achieve certain climate and nature targets, such as limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Bill has been championed by the campaign group Zero Hour over several parliamentary sessions. Dr Savage’s bill is likely to be scheduled for Second Reading on Friday 17 January. Questions and statements: At 11:30, Ministers from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will face questions from MPs. Only two of the 15 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates, with two Labour MPs asking the Secretary of State ‘what steps he is taking to help protect people online’. At 12:00, the Prime Minister will face his weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions. Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Main business: The Liberal Democrats have their first Opposition Day of the new Parliament, one of the three days per Session granted to the third largest party. They have not yet announced the debate topic they will choose.

Adjournment: The Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, Blake Stephenson, has the adjournment debate on flooding in Bedfordshire. Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates today:

• 9:30-11:00: Steel industry (Richard Tice, Reform UK)

• 11:00-11:30: National Highways maintenance and management of the A5036 (Peter Dowd, Labour)

• 14:30-16:00: Regeneration of city and town centres (Catherine Atkinson, Labour)

• 16:00-16:30: Funding for highways in Essex (Priti Patel, Conservative)

• 16:30-17:30: Availability of driving tests (Peter Swallow, Labour)

House of Lords: The main business is Committee Stage of the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill. As explained in a previous edition of the Bulletin, this Bill relates to the prioritisation of the appointment of female bishops to the House of Lords whenever a vacancy arises among the Lords Spiritual (the Church of England bishops with a right to sit in the House of Lords). An interesting oral evidence session has been scheduled by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee (DPRRC). It will hear from Justin Madders MP, a junior Minister in the Department for Business and Trade, and Lord Leong, a Government Whip in the House of Lords, about the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which recently completed its Second Reading in the Lords. The DPRRC’s role is to assess the appropriateness of delegated powers in bills, and the level of scrutiny they require. As we highlighted in last week’s Bulletin, the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill grants ministers broad powers to amend regulations for aligning UK and EU laws, reducing product risks, and ensuring products operate “efficiently” and “effectively”. The DPRRC only rarely holds public evidence sessions; that it is doing so suggests that it has some serious concerns about this bill which it wishes to explore with Ministers before publishing its report in advance of the bill’s committee stage scrutiny. Meanwhile, two Government Ministers – Douglas Alexander MP, recently returned to Parliament, and Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – will also be giving evidence to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee on the subject of ‘data and digital trade’.

Questions and statements: At 9:30, Ministers from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will face questions from MPs. Only two of the 18 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates, with two Labour MPs asking the Secretary of State about the steps being taken to tackle the harmful effects of gambling. Afterwards, MPs will ask oral questions to the members representing the House of Commons Commission and to the MP representing the Church Commissioners, who manage the Church of England’s assets. The latter set of questions will be answered by the Second Church Estates Commissioner, whose role includes responding to oral and written questions about the Church and acting as a liaison between Parliament and the Church. Last week, Labour MP Marsha de Cordova was appointed to the role and will be answering questions on behalf of the Church Commissioners for the first time. For the House of Commons Commission a backbench MP usually responds to oral questions; this may be either Rachel Blake or Sharon Hodgson. Any Urgent Questions will follow. Barring any Urgent Questions, the Leader of the House will make her weekly Business Statement in the Chamber at 10:30. The statement will set out the forthcoming business for the following week. Any other Ministerial Statements will follow. Main business: There will be a general debate on the International Investment Summit. The summit is set to be held on Monday 14 October and will see the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer host 300 industry leaders from around the world to encourage investment in the UK. Adjournment: The Labour MP Laurence Turner has the adjournment debate on planning permission and telegraph poles. Westminster Hall: There are two Westminster Hall debates today:

• 13:30-15:00: Visas, security and access to services for Hong Kongers living in the UK (Connor Rand, Labour)

• 15:00-16:30: Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief (Harriet Cross, Conservative)

House of Lords: There are three backbench debates taking place in the House of Lords on:

• the impact of conflict, extreme poverty, and climate-related emergencies globally; and the progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals;

• what assessment the Government has made of the implications of levying VAT on independent schools with effect from 1 January 2025; and

• the 40th anniversary of the 1984 Ethiopia famine in light of the current conflict and food insecurity in the country.

House of Commons: The House of Commons will not be sitting. House of Lords: Four Private Members’ Bills are scheduled for their Second Reading:

• Education (Values of British Citizenship) Bill: this would require any statement of ‘British values’ for the purposes of education to include democracy, the rule of law, freedom, individual law and respect for the environment.

• Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill: this would expand the criteria for who qualifies as a family member of a refugee or asylum seeker.

• Statutory Instruments (Amendment) Bill: this would introduce a new ‘think again’ procedure to enable the House of Lords to ask the House of Commons to consider its concerns before approving a Statutory Instrument.

• Environmental Targets (Public Authorities) Bill: this would create a new legal requirement for public bodies to contribute towards the environmental targets in the Environment Act 2021.

It is very rare for PMBs originating in the House of Lords to become law. Once these bills reach the House of Commons, they often find themselves at the back of a long queue behind Commons PMBs. Indeed, only one Lords PMB became law during the last Parliament. At the Hansard Society, we have a particular interest in the Statutory Instruments (Amendment) Bill introduced by Lord Thomas of Gresford. This bill seeks to address some of the flaws in the parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation – issues the Hansard Society has highlighted in our Delegated Legislation Review. However, unlike our Review, Lord Gresford proposes that Parliament should legislate for reforms that we think can instead best be addressed by changes to the Standing Orders of each House.